A homeless person once entered the church while I was celebrating Sunday Mass. He stood at the back of the church, and I noticed how uncomfortable some parishioners became. That person was filthy, smelly, wearing many layers of clothes and carrying several bags with all his belongings. I must admit that I also felt uncomfortable when he came to me to receive holy communion because I am not used to that situation. Every Sunday, I rather see people who are nicely dressed and clean. I wasn’t expecting a homeless person to come into church and receive communion. I was judging him in my heart. When I read the gospel for today, I knew how wrong I was. When the Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of eating a meal without the traditional washing of hands, Jesus said: "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."
We should be very careful to not become judgmental of others, based on how they look, how they receive Communion, how they pray, since for God what’s in the heart is what counts.
